I'm currently at work and recently hosted our third anime festival today.

Yeah, the childrens librarian wants to do programming for teenagers so, since I'm the only one at work who knows anything about manga or anime, guess who gets drafted to run the anime programs?

Not that I object or anything: I get to sit on my ass, watch anime for two hours, eat pizza and still get paid since it counts as "work"! How cool is that!?! All I have to do is introduce the anime to the kids and run the DVD player.

We've had two earlier festivals, which did well, this one was sparsely attended as the PR didn't get done (Not my fault!) so we had a girl and four boys come to watch. The girl has been to all three festivals and the boys were new...everyone said they enjoyed themselves and there will probably be a 4th festival in February.

Here's what I showed the kids...I like to bring in a variety of material from my collection:

CHOBITS, episode 13

FULL METAL ALCHEMIST, episode 13

PARANOIA AGENT, episode 1

FLCL (Furi Kuri), episode 1

I also played part of an episode of the original ASTRO BOY, just to show the kids what very old anime looked like.

Anyway, I had fun and the kids enjoyed themselves.

Oddly enough, this is how Fred helped get me hooked on anime back when I first met her.

She had recently begun attending meetings of a comic book club I used to help run. Fred and two of her friends, who also attended (Joy's cousins) kept going on and on about anime and manga. Since I worked at the library, I set up a couple anime festivals and they succeeded in addicting me.

Yeah, I would've addicted myself, eventually but it's better when someone else does it.

So, that was my third anime festival and hopefully the next one will draw a bigger crowd.

Dennis

"It's impossible to be neat and tidy amidst the natural majesty of mountains of books."

There's another school break in February and the next anime festival is scheduled for an afternoon during that week off. Hopefully, the PR will be better next time and more of an audience will show up.

My first two festivals drew between 10-15 kids each.

I do like to show some variety as there's certainly a lot of it out there. So I just tap into my collection and pull some random episodic stuff.

I'd love to show a Miyazaki movie sometime but my library director says there's some issues in showing movies in a public place like a library. Miyazaki material airs on TV once in a great while but I doubt very many of these kids have seen any Miyazaki movies. I DO get a couple girls who claim to have seen "everything" but I imagine most of these kids probably see anime on Adult Swim and that's about it.

There IS a license we can buy to air live-action movies at the library but that expired a couple years ago and we haven't renewed it.

All the anime I've shown is from my own collection, which means I've already paid for it. The program is absolutely free. I don't publicly advertise what I'm showing the kids because I usually choose stuff the night before. Nothing is being illegally copied or sold. No one has raised a fuss about the previous two festivals.

Anyway, I'll keep working on the boss and see if I can get permission to show an anime movie next time. While the episodic material is good, getting to see a full blown anime movie is even better.

Hey, maybe I'll show AKIRA!

Dennis...likes to yell "TETSUOOOOOOOOOO!" for no real reason.

"It's impossible to be neat and tidy amidst the natural majesty of mountains of books."

Believe it or not, I actually had some AZUMANGA DAIOH in the stack I bought with me to the anime festival.

I like the series...very cute and funny.

Since it was such a small group and mostly boys, I held off until the next festival.

Oh yes, there's something screwy with our DVD player at our library. I can't scroll down the episode list and I can't change the languages.

I have to play the first episode on the disc and it's dubbed.

Yeah, I can take or leave dubbing...sometimes it's good, sometimes it sucks. It depends on the anime. I asked the kids what they prefer and they didn't seem to care either way. Personally, I like subtitles but the translations come out odd now and then.

Dennis

"It's impossible to be neat and tidy amidst the natural majesty of mountains of books."

Did anyone ever get around to reading Yotsuba? It's by the same author and equally hysterical. Not an anime yet, as far as I know. But like Azumanga, it's a really short series, only 3 books this time. I highly recommend it!

Another Festival eh?
I hear really good things about Wolf's rain and would love to see it. 9 girls and one boy? That is great to know that the stereotypically nerdy boy is being pushed over by nerdy girls! My generation is well past isn't chance to have equal grounds nerd-wise. But the next one seems to be even. This is a victory for every nerd who remained hopelessly single who came before.

( Okay that was all nonsense really, I am glad though that there is more interest in hobbies growing now )

Hajimemashite. How do you do?Watashi wa Furankurin desu. My name is Franklin.Watashi wa nekononiku ga daisuki desu. I love cat meat.Nihon no onanohito mo daisuki desuyo. I also love Japanese women I say!Doozo yoroshiku.It is nice to meet you.

Hajimemashite. How do you do?Watashi wa Furankurin desu. My name is Franklin.Watashi wa nekononiku ga daisuki desu. I love cat meat.Nihon no onanohito mo daisuki desuyo. I also love Japanese women I say!Doozo yoroshiku.It is nice to meet you.